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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
My first pass-around!!
- Thread starter Noshtero
- Start date
MacHete
Hair Cropper & Chipmunk Wrangler
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2000
- Messages
- 2,559
Got a notice from the PO about a package Monday, picked it up before going to work yesterday, will try to play with it today. This week is gonna be tight- tons of mandatory overtime all week, then we're leaving town for a couple of days on Monday. I will do my dangdest to get some review-worthy time in with the knife, though. :thumbup:
MacHete
Hair Cropper & Chipmunk Wrangler
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2000
- Messages
- 2,559
-though it was just for a little bit during my walk with Code.
First, I've gotta tell you, Kathy loves the look of the handle. She says her favorite color is blue, but she really seems to have a thing for green knife handles.
A small disclaimer- today's trials were conducted with an antsy 85 pound dog tugging my leash arm, so I didn't get in-hand shots or try any hard-use stuff. Hopefully tomorrow. :thumbup:
My initial cosmetic assessment echos those of Tony, John and Sharp Eye:
Fit-to-tang: Great!
Handle contours: A little drastic and asymmetrical. I have large hands for a guy my size, but my size is only 5'6", so I consider my mitts to be "average". The narrows of the grip contours are closer together than my pointer and pinky fingers are, which made the grip uncomfortable. Gentler curves would eliminate that issue, because the handle length was perfect for the blade.
Edge geometry: Very, very good! I only fiddled with a couple of maple twigs, and my findings back up what tonym observed about the edge. I used priomarily the part nearer the grip, and - although it could stand to be narrower- it was perfectly serviceable for some fine work. (Even with a dog yanking on your arm.)
I'm going to clean it up and chop some veggies with it later. I will try to take it out (without the dog) tomorrow.
I'm going to have to apologize now for keeping this for a full week rather than the agreed-upon five days. I'm off work this coming week for a scheduled plant shutdown, and Kathy and I are skipping town for a couple of days. We're leaving Monday morning and will be back Wednesday. I intend to take the knife with me, and even if I don't get to use it much, I should still be able to get some "exotic location" shots of it.
I will do my best to get it to JC in SC before next weekend.
First, I've gotta tell you, Kathy loves the look of the handle. She says her favorite color is blue, but she really seems to have a thing for green knife handles.
A small disclaimer- today's trials were conducted with an antsy 85 pound dog tugging my leash arm, so I didn't get in-hand shots or try any hard-use stuff. Hopefully tomorrow. :thumbup:
My initial cosmetic assessment echos those of Tony, John and Sharp Eye:
Fit-to-tang: Great!
Handle contours: A little drastic and asymmetrical. I have large hands for a guy my size, but my size is only 5'6", so I consider my mitts to be "average". The narrows of the grip contours are closer together than my pointer and pinky fingers are, which made the grip uncomfortable. Gentler curves would eliminate that issue, because the handle length was perfect for the blade.
Edge geometry: Very, very good! I only fiddled with a couple of maple twigs, and my findings back up what tonym observed about the edge. I used priomarily the part nearer the grip, and - although it could stand to be narrower- it was perfectly serviceable for some fine work. (Even with a dog yanking on your arm.)
I'm going to clean it up and chop some veggies with it later. I will try to take it out (without the dog) tomorrow.
I'm going to have to apologize now for keeping this for a full week rather than the agreed-upon five days. I'm off work this coming week for a scheduled plant shutdown, and Kathy and I are skipping town for a couple of days. We're leaving Monday morning and will be back Wednesday. I intend to take the knife with me, and even if I don't get to use it much, I should still be able to get some "exotic location" shots of it.
I will do my best to get it to JC in SC before next weekend.
MacHete
Hair Cropper & Chipmunk Wrangler
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2000
- Messages
- 2,559
Veggies: Not that they are a greater challenge than bushcrafty stuff, but the knife did well with celery and peppers, and actually did a decent job chopping (not slicing) an onion. The same handle issues mentioned before made the kitchen work a little less comfortable, but certainly doable. Sorry for the lack of pics- the cutting board shots, including in-hand shots- were accidently deleted. 
As stated above, I took the knife along on our mini-vacation with the hope of being able to get some more use out of it. I carried it every day (often covertly) but was not able to do much more than get a few more glamour shots:
On our balcony at sunset.
Along the Highland Scenic Highway.
Black Mountain Trail.
I was really hoping to use it to harvest some sumac berry heads on the way home. (Kathy has never had sumac tea.) We saw lots of nice, ripe sumac, but it was always inaccessible from the road.
Overall- I would say great effort Noshtero! The issues so far identified can be easily corrected in subsequent projects, and I look forward to watching your work improve. :thumbup:
JC is SC- the knife is en route, and should be there tomorrow afternoon. Enjoy!
Sorry for the lack of pics- the cutting board shots, including in-hand shots- were accidently deleted. As stated above, I took the knife along on our mini-vacation with the hope of being able to get some more use out of it. I carried it every day (often covertly) but was not able to do much more than get a few more glamour shots:
On our balcony at sunset.
Along the Highland Scenic Highway.
Black Mountain Trail.
I was really hoping to use it to harvest some sumac berry heads on the way home. (Kathy has never had sumac tea.) We saw lots of nice, ripe sumac, but it was always inaccessible from the road.
Overall- I would say great effort Noshtero! The issues so far identified can be easily corrected in subsequent projects, and I look forward to watching your work improve. :thumbup:
JC is SC- the knife is en route, and should be there tomorrow afternoon. Enjoy!
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Wifey (who is a nurse) is working weekends right now, so Daddy Daycare will be open for business tomorrow. With an 11 week old girl, that means very infrequent opportunities for knife play until Monday I'll shoot for some kitchen duty at a minimum in the meantime.Nice job MacHete. Several very nice reviews have been done here so far, so getting creative at this point is daunting. From here on, I vote to make Tony go last
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Just a quick update to let everyone know that the knife arrived yesterday, as promised. Did some light kitchen duty yesterday. I'm headed to my parents' place now and am hoping to scrounge some good fuzz stick material while there. I think I can do everything I have planned this week and get the knife shipped out to CaptInsano by the end of the week.
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Question for all the people left on the passaround. I know it's sort of non-normal for a passaround, but here's an idea.
Jc in Sc said it pretty much right on that most of what can be said about the knife has been said. What are you guys' thoughts on JC in SC sending the knife back to me, and then I'll make a new version, incorporating what's been critiqued so far. I'll then send the new one out to the remainder of the reviews so I can further hone down the critiques.
If not, that's cool, and I'll let this one run the course. I just think the later reviews might like the opportunity to say something new about the knife. It would also be an opportunity to see if I'm improving.
Let me know. I would make nearly the same knife, just a better quality version.
Jc in Sc said it pretty much right on that most of what can be said about the knife has been said. What are you guys' thoughts on JC in SC sending the knife back to me, and then I'll make a new version, incorporating what's been critiqued so far. I'll then send the new one out to the remainder of the reviews so I can further hone down the critiques.
If not, that's cool, and I'll let this one run the course. I just think the later reviews might like the opportunity to say something new about the knife. It would also be an opportunity to see if I'm improving.
Let me know. I would make nearly the same knife, just a better quality version.
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Sounds good to me.:thumbup::thumbup: You've had excellent feedback so I'm looking forward to your next version.:thumbup:
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Sounds fine to me too. The only think I would be curious about is to give it some really hard use via battoning through some tough wood. Just to see how the heat treat and edge retention are.....though seeing as how you probably got a few tips from John, the heat treat and edge retention would be great.
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If you've seen any of my reviews, you'll recall that I typically do this with my knives. I have a bunch of seasoned, knotty oak, but I wasn't planning to do much if any battoning on this passaround since my sharpening skills aren't that great and there are others behind me. If everyone opts to send it back to Noshtero and he consents, I can do some battoning. The edge needed some work when I got it. I did some light stropping and it is better than it was, but still isn't great. The belly of the blade is still quite sharp, but I suspect it hasn't seen as much use as the rest of the blade. More thoughts (with photos) to follow.
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I'm just happy to be a part of the pass around. Whatever you want to do is fine by me.
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Actually.... I'll need to wait until JC does his review, otherwise I won't be able to incorporate his thoughts into the next version. It won't take me too terribly long to make a new knife anyway, so I won't hold the passaround up more than a day or two. No biggie. I want to make sure I get JC's thoughts before I make the next one.
Thanks!
Thanks!
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First off, I'd like to thank Noshtero for including me in this passaround. I'm still a relative newbie here, so it is certainly appreciated. I also have to say that I admire your courage, putting your third knife up on this forum shows a definite willingness to learn and improve your knife making skills. We have a lot of great makers who frequent here, so I can imagine how intimidating this process could be. I also recognize the caliber of folk hanging around, so I'm sure you had some confidence that you'd get honest and constructive feedback. That said, on to my review.
First impressions. I thought the sheath was pretty decent. Certainly tough and could stand to have a little more material removed (beyond the rivet line), but certainly workable. It also had good retention. What can I say about the knife itself that hasn't already been said? Not much. The handle and blade length were good. The contours of the handle were too abrupt as has been stated, but more on this later. As I said in a previous post, the edge needed some work, but this wasn't surprising given the number of participants before me. My sharpening skills are mediocre at best, so I understand how this becomes an issue during passarounds.
Saturday, while running Daddy Daycare, I did manage a little kitchen duty. Unfortunately, our schedule has been so hectic here lately that we haven't been to the store recently. As such, there was little foodstuffs to work with. All I could find to slice was some sharp cheddar cheese (yum!).
I got some reasonably thin slices here, but nothing spectacular. I think it was part technique and part edge geometry. I think increasing the height of your convex (i.e. decrease the included angle at the edge) would help out here. Personally, I prefer a full height convex grind, where as this seemed to be sort of a flat grind with a hefty convex at the edge.
On Sunday, I managed to harvest some Poplar at my parents' house. Compared to Oak, I thought this would work much better for fuzz sticks. Turns out I was right. Today, I actually got out for a bit to play with the knife. I started by shaving the bark off of one of the pieces and the blade did very nicely. This isn't much of a chore on Poplar, but I was impressed nonetheless with the ease that #3 peeled it away.
Next I began working a fuzz stick. I'm still struggling with this, but the softer wood helped immensely. I think once it dries out a bit, it will work even better. I managed to get some reasonably fine curls and in no time was almost through the piece.
Next I did some light battoning on some seasoned Oak. Since this isn't my knife, I didn't go all the way through, but I have no doubt that this knife would have done so without issue.
Okay, so each of these tasks was similar to what has been done in the thread before, so no real surprises. So what sort of advice can I offer Noshtero for his next blade? Other than the aforementioned advice on the grind, this blade is spot on and overall is quite good. The blade won't be going home hair-popping sharp, but it is just shy of it, which demonstrates that a good heat treat was achieved. I'd like to see the drop/clip lowered ever so slightly to make the point a little, well pointier.
I think the best advice I can offer Rob is on his handles. I took some photos with the #3 alongside my Fiddleback Forge Woodsman. Obviously, no one here would expect you to achieve Andy's level of craftsmanship on your third blade, but I think a geometry similar to his is something you should strive for in the future. The Woodsman is one of, if not the most comfortable knife I've held, hence the comparison shots.
My suspicion is that most, if not all, of your handle was shaped via a belt/bench grinder or other powertools. Check out this tutorial over on Andy's forum. It provides a little insight into how Andy shapes those gentle curves reminiscent of a woman's body. Note the subtle curves in all three dimensions. Again, this is meant to be my advice on where to go from here, not where you should be right now.
Another question I had was whether you're using Stainless Steel or Aluminum Corby bolts. I think these are Aluminum. I could be wrong, but I think SS would be easier to work to a smooth finish as it isn't "gummy" like Aluminum when sanded. Obviously, this is a minor cosmetic issue, but one that I think you'll want to address some time in the future.
Altogether, I think you should be quite proud of this #3 knife. Is it perfect? No. Is it much better than many a #5+ blade? Probably so. I'm looking forward to seeing your growth as a maker based on the feedback you've received in this passaround. I'm planning to grind out a few blades myself in the near future and hope I have the nerve to put some up for a passaround as you've done here. Congratulations on an excellent job for an early effort.
First impressions. I thought the sheath was pretty decent. Certainly tough and could stand to have a little more material removed (beyond the rivet line), but certainly workable. It also had good retention. What can I say about the knife itself that hasn't already been said? Not much. The handle and blade length were good. The contours of the handle were too abrupt as has been stated, but more on this later. As I said in a previous post, the edge needed some work, but this wasn't surprising given the number of participants before me. My sharpening skills are mediocre at best, so I understand how this becomes an issue during passarounds.
Saturday, while running Daddy Daycare, I did manage a little kitchen duty. Unfortunately, our schedule has been so hectic here lately that we haven't been to the store recently. As such, there was little foodstuffs to work with. All I could find to slice was some sharp cheddar cheese (yum!).
I got some reasonably thin slices here, but nothing spectacular. I think it was part technique and part edge geometry. I think increasing the height of your convex (i.e. decrease the included angle at the edge) would help out here. Personally, I prefer a full height convex grind, where as this seemed to be sort of a flat grind with a hefty convex at the edge.
On Sunday, I managed to harvest some Poplar at my parents' house. Compared to Oak, I thought this would work much better for fuzz sticks. Turns out I was right. Today, I actually got out for a bit to play with the knife. I started by shaving the bark off of one of the pieces and the blade did very nicely. This isn't much of a chore on Poplar, but I was impressed nonetheless with the ease that #3 peeled it away.
Next I began working a fuzz stick. I'm still struggling with this, but the softer wood helped immensely. I think once it dries out a bit, it will work even better. I managed to get some reasonably fine curls and in no time was almost through the piece.
Next I did some light battoning on some seasoned Oak. Since this isn't my knife, I didn't go all the way through, but I have no doubt that this knife would have done so without issue.
Okay, so each of these tasks was similar to what has been done in the thread before, so no real surprises. So what sort of advice can I offer Noshtero for his next blade? Other than the aforementioned advice on the grind, this blade is spot on and overall is quite good. The blade won't be going home hair-popping sharp, but it is just shy of it, which demonstrates that a good heat treat was achieved. I'd like to see the drop/clip lowered ever so slightly to make the point a little, well pointier.
I think the best advice I can offer Rob is on his handles. I took some photos with the #3 alongside my Fiddleback Forge Woodsman. Obviously, no one here would expect you to achieve Andy's level of craftsmanship on your third blade, but I think a geometry similar to his is something you should strive for in the future. The Woodsman is one of, if not the most comfortable knife I've held, hence the comparison shots.
My suspicion is that most, if not all, of your handle was shaped via a belt/bench grinder or other powertools. Check out this tutorial over on Andy's forum. It provides a little insight into how Andy shapes those gentle curves reminiscent of a woman's body. Note the subtle curves in all three dimensions. Again, this is meant to be my advice on where to go from here, not where you should be right now.
Another question I had was whether you're using Stainless Steel or Aluminum Corby bolts. I think these are Aluminum. I could be wrong, but I think SS would be easier to work to a smooth finish as it isn't "gummy" like Aluminum when sanded. Obviously, this is a minor cosmetic issue, but one that I think you'll want to address some time in the future.
Altogether, I think you should be quite proud of this #3 knife. Is it perfect? No. Is it much better than many a #5+ blade? Probably so. I'm looking forward to seeing your growth as a maker based on the feedback you've received in this passaround. I'm planning to grind out a few blades myself in the near future and hope I have the nerve to put some up for a passaround as you've done here. Congratulations on an excellent job for an early effort.
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- Oct 10, 2002
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Awesome review JC !!!
Ya I only wish I get a handle half as good as Andy does. Some day.....
M'kay. JC is sending the knife back my way. I'm going to make a revamped version of almost the same knife. I'll be sending that out to whomever is next (CaptInsano I think) as soon as it's done.
Man! You ever feel like you just really got a headstart in the race?
I went from zero anything; tools, skills, knowledge, etc... To apprenticing to John (Stomper, JK Knives). To getting all this great feedback from the real users around here.
I owe SOO much to you guys for helping me out. Thank you sooo much.
I'll post a new introduction for the next knife, but just to keep it altogether I'll post it in this same thread.
Stay Tuned!
Ya I only wish I get a handle half as good as Andy does. Some day.....
M'kay. JC is sending the knife back my way. I'm going to make a revamped version of almost the same knife. I'll be sending that out to whomever is next (CaptInsano I think) as soon as it's done.
Man! You ever feel like you just really got a headstart in the race?
I went from zero anything; tools, skills, knowledge, etc... To apprenticing to John (Stomper, JK Knives). To getting all this great feedback from the real users around here.
I owe SOO much to you guys for helping me out. Thank you sooo much.
I'll post a new introduction for the next knife, but just to keep it altogether I'll post it in this same thread.
Stay Tuned!
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2002
- Messages
- 1,551
I'm almost done with the new knife. I got a bunch of fancy wood from this one dude, so I thought I'd try some of that. This one will have a bulletwood handle. The bad part is, the wood came in blocks, and I had no means of cutting the blocks in half except my scroll saw. So I ended up with a nice wavy line, which meant nothing was squared up ever again. It was a ROYAL pain in the ass to try to get anything lined up. So... this one is a less than perfect handle. It's all cosmetic though. Like, it's not that the handle is poorly shaped. Instead, it's like there is a gap around one of the pins where you can see epoxy, that sort of thing.
I also tried a new blade shape in an attempt to get a more pointier point, as requested by a few on the first half of the passaround. I don't know if I completely love this blade shape, but we'll see what you guys think.
I need to finish the handle, clean it up, sharpen it, and make a sheath. Hopefully I'll get that done in the next couple days. My band just decided they want to cover 4 new songs this weekend, so I need to learn those quick too
I also tried a new blade shape in an attempt to get a more pointier point, as requested by a few on the first half of the passaround. I don't know if I completely love this blade shape, but we'll see what you guys think.
I need to finish the handle, clean it up, sharpen it, and make a sheath. Hopefully I'll get that done in the next couple days. My band just decided they want to cover 4 new songs this weekend, so I need to learn those quick too